Getting ready to do diff fluid change and noticed a bolt head on the front cover has been stripped. Anyone know of a good place to find a replacement bolt once I extract it?

 

Nevermind, I see RA has it for $1.64. Premature posting

 

You can probably take one to your local ACE and snag one for about $.38 and I'd say you should get two, another one for where that hex bolt is.

 

Previous owner of the truck must have still been trying to learn "righty tighty, lefty loosy."

 

 

I think my truck has the Allen head bolt as well due to the proximity of the other parts. Don't remember for sure though.

 

My truck has the Allen bolt too. I always thought it was kinda weird.

 

The allen bolt is there because a standard hex head doesn't fit due to the spring perch.

 

The rear diff was serviced 50k miles ago by Ford. I did end up having an axle seal leak on driver and passenger sides 40k mi ago. Fixed myself and topped the differential off. No issues since. I plan to do a full service on it too while I'm addressing the front. There is no record from the previous owners records that the front diff has been serviced at all, but this broken bolt head has me thinking it must have and someone over torqued it.

 

It is possible but when I over tighten a bolt I usually strip some threads, broken bolts are usually the result of a frozen bolt during removal.

 

I made a joking comment earlier about that bolt, but you are probably correct.

Looking at the pic, they appear to be ungraded bolts. High strength is not required in that location. So those bolts would be easier to snap compared to a graded fastener, either from corrosion locking it in place or over torque... but the diff cover does not look distorted from what I can see. I'm leaning towards corrosion, which may affect other bolts too.

At least it will be easier to drill an ungraded bolt. I would soak it in PB Blaster for a few days before trying an extraction.

 

Good advice!

 

Heat never hurts either...

 

I'll be doing my front and rear sometime this summer, I'm gonna follow guzzles how to.

 

Well, I finally got to this last weekend. The bolt head was not broke off after all. What looked like the shaft of the bolt missing the head, was just dry gasket maker that filled the hole. There was no bolt to begin with (Reason #5,032 to do your own work).

All is remedied now and looking nice again after fresh paint.